Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (Book 4): Walking In The Shadow Of Death (2 page)

2.

When Brad regained consciousness he
found himself suspended in the air and in the dark. The seat restraint was
cutting into his abdomen. He wasn’t quite upside down, but more at a right
angle to the ground. Lights began to flash on, and he could hear people
shouting back and forth. Brad’s ears were still popping from the quick descent
and the sounds were coming through muffled. He could hear voices but couldn’t
put names to the clouded shouts for help.

He swallowed hard and his ears
popped, finally letting in the orchestra of sounds. He could hear metal being
ripped away, men struggling to move about the fuselage of the aircraft. He saw
movement below him and he waved his arm, drawing the figure’s attention. Sean
looked up at him, smiling. “Come on Brad, this is no time to be hanging out. We
have work to do.”

“Thanks smartass, now how about
giving me a hand,” Brad said back in protest.

Brooks moved up from behind Brad,
slowly clapping his hands. “Good job buddy,” Brooks said grinning as he reached
up and pushed on Brad’s shoulders to take the weight off his seatbelt. At the
same time Brad undid the buckle and dropped out of the seat. With the help of
Brooks he managed to land on his feet.

“Seriously, now are you—” Sean
began to ask before he was cut off by calls for help coming from the front of
the aircraft. They heard a muffled cry and Gunner shouting. Quickly the trio
worked their way forward, stepping over bags and pieces of the aircraft that
had come loose. They had to step high over objects then duck low to make it up
the body of the aircraft. Near the front they could see the illumination of
lights.

As they moved closer to the light
they could see Gunner and Hahn pulling against the door to the cockpit. They
could hear Nelson on the other side shouting for help. The door was creased and
deformed due to the shifting of the walls of the fuselage causing the door
frame to buckle in on itself. Hahn was frantically pulling and punching the
door, pausing only long enough to step back and throw his shoulder against it.
Gunner had found a fire axe and was preparing to swing it.

Sean quickly stepped forward and
gripped Gunner’s shoulder with his gloved hand. “Stop! Come on now guys, let’s
calm down for a moment.”

Brad could still hear Nelson
yelling from inside the cockpit.  Gunner looked back at Sean. His uniform
blouse was streaked with blood; he had a gash going down the sleeve of his
shirt, and bright red blood was dripping from an open wound. Gunner stared at
Sean with glassy eyes. “Why don’t you take a break, Gunner, we can take care of
this. Brooks, can you help my friend out with his arm?” Gunner nodded in
recognition and took a step back before leaning against a battered console that
had come loose and fallen across the floor.  

Brooks stepped around them and
quickly got to work tearing away Gunner’s uniform, exposing a deep cut across
his bicep. There was another crash as Hahn again launched himself at the door.
Brad called out to Hahn, “Sergeant, give me a SITREP.”

“Huh? What? Situation report?” Hahn
stopped what he was doing and spun around on his feet. He looked back at Brad
with a dazed expression. His head was scraped open and bleeding and his nose
looked broken; thick blood and mucus covered his upper lip.

 “What is the situation here
Sergeant!” Brad asked again.

“Ahh we’re ahh … Sergeant … they
are trapped in the cockpit. Nelson says Kelli is hurt and bleeding badly. We
need to get to them,” Hahn answered, finally calming down.

“Okay, thank you Sergeant, where
are the rest of the men?”

“Oh … ahh, Theo is dead,” Hahn said
matter-of-factly, directing his flashlight at the seats suspended above them. A
broken and crumpled figure hung lifelessly. Specialist Theo’s neck was broken
and twisted at an off angle. “Joe took his brother and Parker outside. They’re
setting up security.”

“Okay, so the Vilegases are in
charge outside. Good. Let’s see about this door.”

“Yeah … the door, we have to get it
open,” Hahn mumbled back, his voice becoming slurred.

They could hear Nelson yelling
again from inside.

“Nelson! This is Sergeant Thompson,
can you tell me what’s going on in there,” Brad yelled at the door.

“It’s Kelli, Sergeant, she’s hurt
bad, she’s bleeding. Swanson too, she’s out and won’t wake up.”

“Okay Nelson, I need you to stand
away from this door. We’re gonna be coming in. Get pressure on those wounds
okay?”

“Roger, Sergeant,” responded a
muffled but more calm Nelson.

Brad saw that Hahn was still
carrying his tomahawk strapped to his thigh. He reached down for it and Hahn
quickly undid the straps and handed it over. Brad swung the hawk in a powerful
two-handed swing, catching the door above the top hinge. Applying his weight to
the handle, the hinges popped and broke free. Brad repeated this with the
remaining two hinges, then used the face of the ‘hawk to break the door free of
the frame.

With the door removed, Brad and
Sean pulled it out of the way and stepped into the cockpit. Nelson had a light
focused on Kelli. Part of the nose of the aircraft had imploded inward and her
lower body was trapped between the seat and the consoles. Nelson was struggling
to free her from the wreckage.  Sean moved forward using the handle of
Gunner’s axe to apply leverage to the frame of the pilot’s seat. He pushed
hard. They could hear the wood of the axe strain and pop as if the handle was
about to break. With some of the tension removed from the seat, Nelson and Brad
were able to pull Kelli’s limp body out and away from the wreckage.

They positioned her on the floor.
Both of her legs were broken; the right leg had an open fracture and was
bleeding. Brad tried to straighten her legs as Brooks walked into the space
holding a bright light. He looked down and shook his head. He motioned for Brad
to move out of the way as he kneeled beside his patient and went to work.

Brad took a step back and moved
towards Chelsea. She was strapped into a smaller jump seat near the bulkhead.
With the angle of the aircraft she was almost lying flat on her back now. Brad
moved towards her and removed the seat restraints. He checked that she was
breathing and had a strong pulse. She was wearing a flight helmet, but there
was an obvious crack going along the top of it. Brad looked down at her and
could see the cloud of condensation around her mouth every time she exhaled. It
was the first time Brad had noticed how cold it was. 

“How is she?” Brooks called out,
looking over his shoulder to Brad.

“I can’t tell. She’s unconscious.
From the break on her helmet, something must have knocked her out.”

“Okay Brad, let’s just assume for
now it’s a concussion. I need you to run your hands along her body and check
for any broken bones or bleeding, okay? I’m pretty tied up over here.”

“Okay,” Brad said back softly.
Quickly he began the process of moving his palms down Chelsea’s arms and legs.
When he completed that, he checked her torso as well as he could. Finding no
breaks or blood, he reported back to Brooks, “Everything looks okay, what do I
do now to help her?”

“Just let her rest. Why don’t you
check on the men outside?” Brooks said while he continued to work on Kelli.

“Are you sure there’s nothing else
that can be done for her?”

“Brad, go!” Brooks said, annoyed.

Brad found one of Chelsea’s bags
pushed up tight between the seat and the wall. There was a small blanket rolled
tightly and fastened to the top of it. He unrolled the blanket and laid it out
over Chelsea, tucking in the edges. Nelson came up behind him looking on.

“She’ll be okay, Sergeant, I’ll
keep an eye on her,” Nelson said in a low voice. 

Brad turned to look at Nelson. His
face was white and he had blood on his hands and uniform from helping Kelli.

“How are you holding up, Nelson?”
Brad asked.

“I’m okay, just scared me. I
thought I was the only one left for a bit there.”

“Yeah we’re good now. Take care of
Chelsea, and help Brooks, I’ll be right back,” Brad said.

Brad looked up and saw that Sean
had left the cockpit. He saw him and Gunner standing in the doorway. They
turned away and Brad followed them back into the body of the aircraft. Gunner
was now wearing a sling on his bandaged right arm. He was holding a Sig 1911 in
his left hand. Sergeant Hahn was sitting farther away, now with his head
heavily bandaged. Brad shook his head and looked at the floor.

“We’re pretty beat up here, Chief,”
Brad reported.

Sean reached down and picked up a M203
that was lying awkwardly on the ground. This caused Brad to look across the
plane to the now covered body of Specialist Theo.

Sean walked across the room and
laid the weapon near Theo’s body. “Things could be a lot worse Brad,
considering we were just in a plane crash.”

Just then they saw a light come
from the open door behind them. Daniel Villegas pulled himself up and into the
cover of the AN-12. “It’s cold as fuck out there man,” he gasped.

Villegas moved towards the huddled
group of men and looked to Gunner. “We got a couple guards posted, Pops. But
it’s damn cold out there, and I forgot to pack my coat.”

Gunner looked back at the shivering
Marine. “You see anything out there?”

“Nothing Boss, it’s dark and the
snow is coming down hard. Can’t see shit in that mess.”

“There ain’t no sense in us posting
up outside. Bring the guys back in, let’s try and secure the interior of the
aircraft as much as possible until first light. We can strip the fabric off of
these seats and try and insulate our clothing,” Gunner ordered.

Brad was reassured to see that
Gunner had regained his composure and was back on the job. “Let’s go Daniel,
I’ll help you gather the guys,” Brad said, moving towards the door. 

Villegas looked up at him and
nodded. Together they climbed out of the aircraft and into the darkness. 
Brad lowered himself out of the door and let go, dropping to the ground with a
thud. Daniel dropped just beside him, then stepped off, leading the way.

Brad took in their surroundings.
Just as Daniel had said, the snow was coming down hard; it was nearly blizzard
conditions. There was surprisingly a lot of light. Brad looked into the sky and
could just barely make out a full moon through the blowing clouds. He’d grown
up in Michigan’s northern peninsula, so a heavy snow fall was nothing new to
him. He followed Daniel out and away from the aircraft, the snow making a dry
crunch under his boots. Brad knew that dry snow was a clear indication of below
freezing temperatures. He would have to find a source of heat for the men or
they risked hypothermia. They moved farther from the aircraft and near a
crumpled section of the AN-12’s lost wing. 

Corporal Parker was beside it with
his M249 set up on its bipod resting across the wreckage. He had his arms
crossed tightly across his body, shivering. Parker looked at the men
uncomfortably as they approached. “Let’s go Parker, Gunner wants us to hold up
inside,” Daniel whispered.

“Thank God, bro, it’s so cold out
here I think my nuts have retracted up inside of my body,” Parker stuttered in
response. He rubbed his gloved hands together before reaching down and securing
his SAW. He indicated he was ready and followed Daniel and Brad down towards
the tail of the aircraft.  They stepped off, staying close to each other,
the close proximity giving them a false sense of security.

Brad could see that the plane
appeared to have crashed in a somewhat open field. Not the farm fields or
pastures he recognized from home, but rather a large open break in a tall,
old-growth forest.  Kelli had done well putting them down in the clearing
and avoiding the trees.  There were no signs of any structures or manmade
lights. They were surrounded by high ridgelines on both sides. A scattering of
trees lined the tops of the ridges.

 Brad searched as far as the
limited visibility would allow as they crunched through the falling snow. The
wind was picking up, swirling snow pushing into his face, the biting cold
causing his eyes to tear up. They needed to get back into cover; it was too
cold to be outside exposed to the elements.

They found Joseph Villegas just a
few feet out from the tail of the aircraft. He was standing silently with his
rifle at the low ready. Daniel let out a low whistle to warn his brother that
they were coming up behind him. Joseph turned and nodded to them. “Where the
hell are we, Hermano?” he said, looking to Daniel.

“No idea, brother. You see anything
out here?” Daniel answered.

“No, just wind and snow, even the
wildlife is too cold to be out in this. What kind of frozen hell did we end up
in?”

“Kelli had said something about
Canadian Islands before we went down? I don’t know what that means, but Canada
has always reminded me of cold. Maybe this is good, maybe the primals will
freeze solid in this shit,” Brad added.

Parker stomped his feet and rubbed
his gloved hands together. “I don’t know fellas, but can we talk about this
somewhere else?”

“You’re right, let’s get back
inside,” Brad said.

3.

When Brad returned to the plane, he
found that they had moved Kelli out of the cockpit. Brooks had her positioned
in a makeshift hammock. She was attached to one of the emergency backboards
that were stowed aboard the aircraft. They had tightly fastened Kelli to the
board, then suspended it a few feet off the ground so they could keep her feet
elevated. Most of her uniform pant legs had been cut away, and her legs were
covered in improvised bandages. On her chest lay an IV solution bag with a line
leading directly to her arm. Brooks was standing over her closely monitoring
her vitals.

Behind Kelli, Brad saw that Chelsea
was now awake and sitting in one of the low side jump seats. She was covered in
blankets and shivering. Nelson and Hahn were sitting next to her bundled under
a similar pile of blankets.   Brad moved near Brooks who was taking inventory
of his aid bag. “What are you thinking?” Brad said barely above a whisper.

“Fortunately she hasn’t regained
consciousness. When … or if she does, she is going to be in a lot of pain. I’ll
have to give her morphine, but right now … with those injuries … shit man, I
just don’t know.,” Brooks said, not looking up from the bag.

“And Chelsea?”

“She’s fine bro, just got her bell
rung. Nelson has orders to get her to eat something, but she looks okay.
Gunner’s arm is jacked up pretty bad. I’m gonna have to get some sutures in it
pretty soon. Hahn took a pretty good whack to the head. He’s seeing double; I’m
worried about him. He hasn’t been right since we landed.”

“What can I do to help?”

“You can find a way to heat this place
up. If we don’t get some warmth we’re all gonna freeze. You notice those water
bottles back there? Most of them are already froze solid,” Brooks said,
motioning towards a half case of water.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do,”
Brad said.

He moved towards the back of the
aircraft. The cargo they had carefully stacked earlier had come loose and was
piled up against the walls of the plane. Looking at the mess, Brad was
surprised any of them had survived the crash. He dug through the pile and found
what he was looking for. The large wooden pallets were buried deep under the
scattered piles of goods. Brad called over his shoulder for Parker to help him.
Quickly they started the job of digging out and cutting away the wooden
pallets.

They managed to free the wood from
four large pallets. Still Brad wasn’t confident about lighting a fire inside
the body of the aircraft. The strong fumes of jet fuel were in the air. Brad
didn’t know if a small fire would be enough to ignite them, but he wasn’t ready
to take a chance. They ripped down heavy insulation blankets from the inside of
the plane and built a makeshift shelter within the plane and surrounding Kelli.

It wasn’t enough. Brooks said her
core temperature was still dropping; they would need to do more or they would
lose her. Sean had moved near the sheltered area and joined Brooks and Brad in
their discussion. Brooks looked to Sean. “If we can’t warm her up she won’t see
morning.”

“What do you suggest, Brooks?” Sean
asked.

“I hate to say it, but I think
we’re gonna have to make camp outside. We need to get a fire going. I’m willing
to stay in here and burn one. I’ll take my chances on blowing up.” Brooks said.

Brad shook his head. “What if I can
take a couple guys out and get those pallets burning? Maybe we can heat some
blankets and drape those over Kelli. Could heat up some stones or metal too.
Shit, anything to warm her.”

Sean stared at Kelli. “I don’t
know. If we draw attention … If we draw in any infected we’re fucked. None of
us are up for a sustained battle right now.”

Brad nodded. “Honestly, if we don’t
get some real shelter I think we’re all fucked anyhow. It’s too damn cold. And
those primals still have human DNA. I’m willing to gamble they can’t operate in
this storm any better than we can.”

Brooks reached down into his bag
and pulled out a block of C4. He held it in his hand for a minute before
handing it to Brad along with his Zippo lighter. “Here, take this Brad. It’s
gonna be hell getting a fire started out there. Break off some small chunks of
this. They’ll burn pretty hot, should help getting that wood to burn.”

Brad took the C4 and placed it and
the Zippo into his assault bag. He turned back and saw Parker and the
Villegases get to their feet and begin to strap on their gear. Brad was
relieved they had overheard his conversation and he wouldn’t have to convince
them to go with him. They still had no cold weather gear. The thin Multicam
uniforms and body armor wouldn’t do much to keep them warm outside.

Brad saw more of the heavy blankets
they had managed to gather from the cargo bay. They were made of a heavy
material and normally used to put over and protect cargo, but they would work.
Brad grabbed a stack of them and turned to the Villegases and Parker. “Let’s
cut these into squares. We can turn them into ponchos, then wrap the rest
around our legs and tape them in place.”

Joseph shook his head. “Oh, so
because we’re Mexicans, you assume we want to wear ponchos and shit?”

Brad looked at Joseph, confused.
“Okay, suit yourself,” he said, handing a blanket to Parker.

Daniel pushed his brother out of
the way. “Man, ignore this fool, I love ponchos,” he said, pulling a large
Ka-Bar knife and using it to start cutting away on the heavy cargo blankets.

Quickly the four of them broke down
the pallets into shards of boards and splinters. They loaded these into their
now empty sea bags. They draped the cargo blanket ponchos over their bodies,
tying them at the waist. Their legs were bundled and taped so that they looked
like hockey goalies from the bulky insulation. After gathering their bags and
gear, they stood in the door of the aircraft. The Villegas brothers lowered
themselves down and back into the dark night. Brad and Parker quickly followed
them out the door.

Once on the ground, Brad led the
way into the darkness. Daniel had spotted a piece of the tail on the far side
of the aircraft and in an outcropping of rocks. The team had already decided
that would make the best place to build a shelter. Their primary concern was
getting clear of the jet fuel-soaked snow. Brad moved in close to the broken
tail section of the AN-12. It was nothing more than twisted sheet metal wrapped
between the large stones, but it would work.

Brad moved towards a dead space in
the boulders and dumped the wooden contents of his sea bag. He made a loose
stack of the broken pallet parts, then used his knife to cut a long sliver from
the nearly frozen block of C4. When the shard was free of the block, he
carefully pushed it against a portion of the wood and, using his hands to
shield the wind, ignited the plastic explosive. It lit quickly and began
burning with a bright yellow flame. Brad added additional wood to the small
flame until the dried bits of pallet began to take hold.

Soon they had a large fire going.
The men dug away the snow and used the metal from the tail to build a wind
screen and also to reflect the heat of the fire back towards the rocks. 
With the fire going strong, Brad positioned one of the sea bags filled with
blankets as near the fire as he dared. The flames were just out of reach of the
bag and Brad saw steam rising off the edges of the green fabric. As soon as the
bag and its contents were hot to the touch, Parker quickly ran the bag back to
the aircraft’s door and tossed it up to Brooks. Brooks removed the heated
blankets and laid them out over Kelli, then tossed the sea bag back down, now
filled with replacement blankets to be heated by the fire.

All through the night the men took
turns standing watch, maintaining the fire and running the heated blankets back
to the plane.  As their supply of wood ran short they began burning parts
of the aircraft and down wood from the tree line, using anything to keep their
heat source going. They were surprised that they didn’t see any signs of
primals. They were even beginning to hope that they had crashed in an area
where the infection might not have spread. Eventually Sean, Gunner, Hahn, and
Chelsea found themselves down by the fire, while Brooks and Nelson took turns
keeping vigil over Kelli.

The daylight came to the men as a
dull gray. Slowly spreading over the tops of the high ridges, the cloud cover
blocked out the sun, and the thick snowflakes dropping on the ground covered
any sounds of nature. Brad had stayed awake all night helping to increase the
watch. He stood now and searched the horizon as far out as he could see in all
directions. He could clearly see that the plane had crashed in a valley, eating
up earth as it had cut a path down through the snow-covered ground. Brad
couldn’t see any structures or buildings, and no other signs of life, just the
tall forests ringing the clearing.

He reached down and dropped another
bundle of branches on the fire before stepping off towards where Daniel and
Joseph had taken up positions away from the makeshift campsite. As soon as
daybreak approached they had moved out to set up observation posts. He held his
rifle at the ready as he walked in the direction where he knew the brothers
would be. The snow had come down fast the previous night, but had begun to let
up over the last couple of hours. The snow covered the sound of his movements
but he still wasn’t able to sneak up on the brothers. As Brad stepped closer to
the tree line, Daniel stepped out of cover to greet him.

Brad walked closer then leaned
against a tall pine looking back towards the makeshift campsite. “Where’s your
brother?”

“Two hundred meters out that way.
Watching over the far side of the plane.”

“You see anything?”

Daniel shook his head and looked
out over the campsite. “Nothing. How’s Kelli?”

“Brooks is keeping her drugged up.
He says she’s going to need a doctor.”

“Doctor? Hell, where we gonna find
us one of them?” Daniel grouched.

“Yeah … I don’t know.”

“Psst, get back in the trees,”
Daniel whispered as he stepped back in to the cover of the tree line.

Brad took a knee next to the tall
pine he had been leaning against. “What is it?”

“Joey just signaled,” Daniel
whispered, pointing far off. “There, see it?”

Brad followed his finger to the far
off patch of trees. He spotted the flash of a signal mirror.

“What does it mean?”

“It ain’t exactly a radio, Sergeant
… he sees something, so get your eyes open.”

“There, off the nose of the
aircraft above that ridgeline,” Daniel whispered.

Brad lifted his rifle and used the
optics to search the area. He spotted them: three figures walking slowly, two
out front, and another trailing farther behind. “What do you make of it?” he
whispered.

“Well they ain’t primal. The two
out front are carrying long guns.”

“I have to get down to the campsite
and warn the others, you stay here. If things go bad, meet up with your brother
and flank from his direction,” Brad whispered.

He stepped off, ducking low. He
tried to stay in the shadow of the trees as he wound his way back down into the
valley and towards the campsite. As he moved he felt the wound in his leg
tighten up. The pain reminded him that he still hadn’t fully recovered from the
fall in Yemen, the fall that had nearly cost him his life. Brad slowed his pace
and took a knee in the snow.  He lifted his rifle and searched the far off
ridge line. He could no longer see the three strangers.

Brad slowly got back on his feet
and continued his move towards the others. As he approached, Sergeant Hahn took
notice of him and lifted his head in Brad’s direction. Brad quickly held up three
fingers and pointed to the far off ridgeline. Hahn nodded before turning on the
balls of his feet and quietly began waking the others. Brad moved into the
enclosed campsite and kicked out the low-burning fire. He was careful to spread
the ashes instead of smothering it, to prevent extra smoke.

Chelsea was awake and cradling her
rifle. Gunner and Sean had already gotten to their feet and had moved off
towards the aircraft to warn Brooks and Nelson who were caring for Kelli.
Parker and Hahn, with weapons in their arms, moved into the outcropping of
rocks and took up a concealed position just ahead of them. Parker had swapped
his SAW for Theo’s suppressed M203. He didn’t want to make more noise than
necessary. Chelsea looked back at Brad as the men moved out. She looked
confused as if she wasn’t sure what to do. “What did you see, Brad?”

“There’s three people on the ridge
moving in this direction,” he answered.

“Primals?” she gasped, fear in her
voice.

“No. Not unless the primals are
carrying rifles now … They looked like civilians, but they’re armed.”

“Should I be worried?”

“I don’t even know where we are at.
We have no idea who is out here.”

“We’re in Canada,” Chelsea said.

“That’s a pretty big place.”

“I know … Kelli said she was going
to put us down on an island near the coast. Well, that was the plan before we
started losing altitude.”

“Okay, stay quiet, either way we
have them out gunned and outnumbered. Are you okay to move forward?” Brad
asked, not wanting to leave her alone at the campsite.

“Yeah, I’m feeling better,” Chelsea
answered.

“Good, stay behind me and stay as
quiet as possible,” Brad ordered.

He checked his rifle and headed
into the rocks towards Hahn and Parker. He found them prone with their rifles
pointed towards the tail of the aircraft. There was a muddy path in the snow
that led down and around to the aircraft’s door. They had used the path all
night to ferry heated stones and blankets to Kelli. Brad wanted to get into a
better position. If their visitors spotted the tracks in the snow, they would
know the team was outside of the aircraft. Brad didn’t want to give up that
information.